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Greenville County

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LANGUAGE

The Census asks questions about language use at home to locate groups of people who speak a language other than English. Their isolation or integration into a primarily English speaking community can be determined by their ability to speak English proficiently.

Language Spoken at Home, 1990-2000
1990 2000
Number Percent Number Percent
Only English 287,073 96.44% 329,182 92.94%
Spanish 3,711 1.25% 13,924 3.93%
Other Indo-European* 5,266 1.77% 6,865 1.94%
Asian Language** 1,104 0.37% 3,208 0.91%
Other 526 0.18% 1,011 0.29%
Total Population Age 5+ 297,680 100.00% 354,190 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 7,783 55.90%
Other Indo-European* 1,979 28.83%
Asian Language** 1,732 53.99%
Other Language 378 37.39%
Total 11,872 3.35%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,371 36.94%
Other Indo-European* 1,317 25.01%
Asian Language** 504 45.65%
Other Language 124 23.57%
Total 3,316 1.11%

* "Other Indo-European" excludes English and Spanish. "Indo-European" is not synonymous with "European." French, German, Hindi, and Persian are all classified as Indo-European. Hungarian, on the other hand, is lumped into "Other Language."

** "Asian Language" includes languages indigenous to Asia and Pacific islands areas that are not also Indo-European languages. Chinese, Japanese, Telugu, and Hawaiian are all classified here.

Also note that ability to speak English "very well" is based on the self-assessment of those responding to Census questions, not on a test of language ability.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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